Oracle Corporation (ORCL  ), headquartered in California, is a multinational computer technology company. The corporation was co-founded as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) in 1977 by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates. The company's name was changed to Oracle Systems Corporation in 1982, in order to create a clear tie between itself and its flagship product, Oracle Database (an object-relational database management system that enables storage, retrieval, and manipulation of various forms of data). Today, Oracle specializes in developing cloud engineered systems, database software, and its own brand of database management systems. It offers service in three main layers of the Cloud: Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service. In addition, Oracle also manufactures tools for software relating to customer service management, supply chain organization, and enterprise resourcing.

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A 2016 survey by the International Data Corp (IDC) revealed that 58% of companies use either private or public cloud for more than one or two small applications. This was an increase in use of 24% over the course of the previous fourteen months alone. Oracle's main competitors-Amazon (AMZN  ) and Microsoft (MSFT  )-have long been keen to draw away Oracle's impressive consumer base of roughly 350,000 users. They see an opportunity in Oracle's earnings reports: Oracle's 2016 sales for on-premises software (which comprise approximately 70% of the company's revenue) decreased 11% over the course of the previous year. Seeing the opportunity, Microsoft launched an Oracle-to-SQL Server exchange program, and took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal stating, "Now is the time to move your Oracle databases to SQL Server with free licenses."

However, moving to the clouds provided by Amazon or Microsoft is not as easily done as the aforementioned companies would like potential customers to believe. In order be moved to a new database, an application needs to be re-written-a costly hassle that many customers would like to avoid. As a result, Oracle still holds an advantage over its competitors. Ellison himself has publicly stated that Oracle is un-phased by the competition brought forward by Microsoft and Amazon, telling Wall Street analysts, "A lot of people have come after us in databases. We're very comfortable defending our leading position in the database market." As of now, Amazon still dominates the "public cloud" market (providing computing power and data storage, known as infrastructure as a service or "IaaS"). However, Ellison is confident that Oracle will continue to push forward, stating that Oracle's new Gen2 IaaS is, "both faster and lower cost than Amazon Web Services."

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Ellison's confidence seems to have been well founded: Oracle's 2017 third-quarter earnings exceeded analysts' expectations. The company's non-GAAP earnings were 69 cents a share on revenue of $9.2 billion (an increase of 5 cents a share on revenue of $9.01 billion last year). This is in line with Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz's prediction that cloud revenue will exceed software license revenue the next fiscal year. Oracle's total cloud revenues now comprise 13% of the company's total sales, and the company is continuing to shift away from focusing on its legacy software licensing business. As Catz has stated, "[Oracle's] pivot to the cloud is now clearly in full swing," demonstrating the company's continuing ability to read the direction of the market and adjust with changing times.